Dave Smith is introduced as RPI's new men's hockey coach during a news conference Thursday April 6, 2017 in Troy, NY. Smith has spent the past 12 seasons as head coach at Canisius College. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

Dave Smith is introduced as RPI's new men's hockey coach during a news conference Thursday April 6, 2017 in Troy, NY. Smith has spent the past 12 seasons as head coach at Canisius College. (John Carl ... more

Based on that, Harvard is the team with the best nucleus of returning players, according to the coaches' poll released Monday at the annual ECAC hockey media day at Times Union Center.

Union, which shared the regular-season title with Harvard a year ago, was picked sixth. That's reflective of the eight players lost to graduation and/or the professional ranks who provided 55 percent of the team's goals.

"I can tell you I slept OK last night, not figuring out where we were going to be," said Union coach Rick Bennett, beginning his seventh season (137-69-30, .644). "It's fun to do, but it doesn't have any effect on our coaching staff or our players."

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ECAC preseason poll

ORDER OF FINISH

(first-place votes in parentheses)

1. Harvard (9) 119

2. Quinnipiac (1) 106

3. Cornell (1) 95

4. Clarkson (1) 91

5. Princeton 80

6. Union 72

7. St. Lawrence 69

8. Yale 54

9. Dartmouth 33

10. RPI 32

11. Colgate 23

12. Brown 18

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

F Ryan Donato Harvard

F Max Veronneau Princeton

F Joe Snively Yale

D Adam Fox Harvard

D Chase Priskie Quinnipiac

G Merrick Madson Harvard

RPI was picked 10th after finishing 11th in 2016-17. Smith is replacing Seth Appert, who was fired in March after the Engineers absorbed their fifth season of 23 or more losses in Appert's 11-year tenure.

The Engineers (8-28-1 overall, 6-16 ECAC) return eight of their top 10 scorers from last season.

"We're measuring the process versus the results," Smith said. "The process we work on every day. That's never going to end. The results, I don't know when they will come. It might come in the first weekend, it might come at Christmastime. I would look at positive results the same as I look at anything negative that happens. It gives us a chance to respond."

RPI takes the home ice Saturday in a exhibition game against St. Mary's, Nova Scotia. Smith's first regular-season game will be Oct. 13, the start of a series at Ohio State, his alma mater.

"Teddy (Donato, Harvard coach) talks about getting to the Frozen Four, and now they want to finish the job," Smith said. "These guys want to establish a legacy, and legacy on campus never ends. If you lose a game, you want to win the next one. If you lose a weekend, you want to win the next weekend. Results to me give us an opportunity to coach. We're never going to stop trying to get better."

Union (28-6-2, 16-4-2) also got the news Monday that it is ranked nationally in both national polls. The College Hockey Online voting has the Dutchmen 16th, and the USA Today/USA Hockey balloting has them 10th. Union finished last season 11th in both polls.

The Dutchmen, who will try to integrate nine freshmen into their lineup, begin their schedule Saturday night on the road against Boston U., ranked third in the USCHO.com poll.

"I was just listening to a couple of questions about a couple of teams with tough schedules," Bennett said, "and I looked at ours. This is arguably the toughest schedule that I've seen in my time here at Union. We've got three (airplane) flights on top of our own league, and starting off with BU. It's a tremendous test. That's why these student-athletes came here, to play a schedule like this."

There were no Union or RPI players placed on the six-player preseason all-conference team.